​On the eve of the 1st of May, a ceremony to commemorate the late Sheikh and master of speech Saadi Shirazi was held in Berlin on Saturday, April 13, 2024, in cooperation with the Saadi and Ferdowsi Institutes. This cultural program was attended by Professor Emad al-Din Sheikh al-Hekmaei (university lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Tehran) and Dr. Younes Nourbakhsh (sociologist and professor at the University of Tehran) and a group of students and Iranians living in Berlin at the Hertha-Müller-Haus in Berlin.

In addition, this program was also broadcast online via Zoom and Instagram for those interested. In this cultural ceremony, while honoring the memory of master of speech Saadi Shirazi, the professors gave speeches.

A summary of Dr. Nourbakhsh's speech:

Dr. Nourbakhsh said in his speech titled "The Moral and Social Implications of Saadi's Golestan" on Saadi's commemoration day in Berlin: Saadi was not only a poet, writer, and master of speech, but also a mystic and a social reformer, and like a social reformer, he was concerned with healthy social relations in Islamic society. He lived in a period when the Mongol attacks had disrupted social conditions and language and literature were also under attack. Saadi both revived the Persian language and kept human values ​​alive in society in the form of his stories and poems. He was a poet who inspired great poets of Iran and the world, such as Hafez, Goethe, and Schiller. It seems that Iranian and German society should become more familiar with this poet, writer, and social philosopher. Unlike Hafez, who had not traveled much, Saadi was a world traveler, had seen Baghdad, Syria, and many other places, and had become acquainted with many thinkers.

Yunus Nourbakhsh at Saadi's Commemoration Day

One of the important parts of Saadi's Golestan is the first chapter, which is about the conduct of kings. In this part, he deals with the advice and counsel of kings and describes the method of successful governance that is pleasing to both God and His creation in the form of short and attractive stories and using poetry and proverbs. He calls on rulers to forgive and have mercy on the people. On the other hand, calling for justice is the key point of his advice.

Writing advice and advice to the king was a common method in Islamic societies that was realized at the request of the king or with the recognition of a sage or philosopher of the time, and he would write a book inviting and educating the king or his successor to good governance.

In other parts of Golestan, he advocates the equality of humans and considers the pain of others a sign of humanity. He considers humans as one body and members of one being and does not see superiority between them. The professor at the University of Tehran adds: The call for contentment, patience, resilience, and forgiveness that can unite people in society are among Saadi's other teachings in Golestan. He has expressed these concepts very simply and eloquently in the form of short stories. He also emphasizes avoiding violence and paying attention to social peace:

Saadi calls for social health, a society in which healthy social relations prevail, both on the part of the rulers and the people towards each other.

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